Kickstarter in Australia & New Zealand

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In August we announced that Kickstarter would soon open up to projects based in Australia and New Zealand for the first time. Today we're happy to announce that the day has finally come!

Beginning today (like, right now!), people in Australia and New Zealand can start building their projects by clicking on the "Start a project" button on the Start page. Beginning Wednesday November 13, people in those countries will be able to launch their projects. We'll send an email that day letting everyone know when they can click the launch button.

Let's run through the basics on how things will work.

So Australia- and New Zealand-based creators can start building their Kickstarter projects as early as today, and launch them beginning November 13?

Yes. We thought the month-long gap would give everyone plenty of time to build and tweak their projects before launching. Beginning November 13, they can launch and share their projects with the world.

Will there be Australia- and New Zealand-specific Kickstarter sites?

Nope. Australia- and New Zealand-based projects will be listed alongside all the other Kickstarter projects.

Can people outside Australia and New Zealand pledge to projects based in those countries?

Yes! Just as with every other project on Kickstarter, backers can pledge to Australia- and New Zealand-based projects from all around the world.

What currency will Australia- and New Zealand-based projects be listed in?

Australian projects will be listed in Australian dollars (AUD), and New Zealand-based projects will be listed in New Zealand dollars (NZD). If you are pledging from outside Australia or New Zealand, you will see the approximate conversion to US dollars before you complete your pledge.

Will backing Australia- and New Zealand-based projects be similar to backing US projects?

The mechanics of Kickstarter (all-or-nothing funding, rewards, etc.) are identical for all projects. When pledging, however, backers of Australia- and New Zealand-based projects will enter their payment information directly on Kickstarter rather than through Amazon Payments. All pledges will be processed securely through a third-party payments processor.

Are the fees for Australia- and New Zealand-based projects the same as those for projects in other countries?

Yes, Kickstarter will charge a 5% fee to successfully funded projects and no fee to unsuccessfully funded projects in Australia and New Zealand.
Payment processing fees for Australia- and New Zealand-based projects are similar to those for UK and Canada-based projects. Here are the details:

For Australia-based projects:

Pledges less than $10 AUD are charged 5% + $0.05 AUD

Pledges of $10 AUD or greater are charged 3% + $0.20 AUD

For New Zealand-based projects:

Pledges less than $10 NZD are charged 5% + $0.05 NZD

Pledges of $10 NZD or greater are charged 3% + $0.20 NZD

If a project is not successfully funded, there are no fees.

Will Kickstarter host workshops for Australia- and New Zealand-based creators leading up to the launch?

So how do I change my current project to work in Australia? It still just says connect to amazon. Do I have to wait until Nov 13 to enter payment information? My buddy in america helped out with verification.

@jordan you'll have to start a new project, and when it asks you what country you are in, select Australia, then you will not have to connect with Amazon Payments, but you will still need to provide other details, which you can do before November 13th.

Hey Yadwinder and Uri, it sounds like you may have chosen "United States" when you were first starting your projects. Head back to the start page ( kickstarter.com/start ) and create a new project. Select the appropriate country and you should be all set—you can copy/paste information over from your old project draft.

I'm not Kickstarter, but given that it's illegal to classify public investment as a gift it's almost certain you'll need to be registered for an ABN (either as a sole trader or as a business) and pay GST as well as either income tax or business tax on the money you take.

That being said, Australia actually has pretty good support for small businesses (we're terrible at supporting startups, but small enterprises do pretty ok). I'd recommend anybody planning to fund a project via Kickstarter (or any investment, really) to retain the services of a good small business accountant. Beats the hell out of trying to navigate the completely byzantine tax deduction laws.

Full disclosure - I'n not an accountant, I'm just an app developer who very much appreciates the services of my small-business accountant.

Remind me how the transaction fee works? When a backer makes a pledge of $10 is $10 added to the project total or is $9.20 added to the project total? If $10 is added to the total (assuming .20c is charged to the backer and does not come off total) is the share of the 10$ for the project $9.20? Therefore total fee and processing fee are 8% for over $10 pledges?

Also, in NZ we have a 15% Goods and Service Tax (GST). Am I right that in accounting terms Kickstarter is the 'agent' for the project. In other words Kickstarter holds the project's pledged funds in trust until time to pay out. If this is the case, I assume that any GST registered project would need to deduct GST from the amount forwarded to them by Kickstarter... So if the project raises $10,000, transaction fees and processing fees reduce this to $9,200 and then if GST registered 15% goes to Government leaving $7820? correct

@Simon When a backer pledges $10 to a project, $10 is added to the project. Fees are extracted afterward. Fees for pledges of $10 NZD or greater are charged 3% + $0.20 NZD.

In terms of funds, no backers are charged until the project ends successfully. At that point, backers are charged. In terms of tax implications in NZ, always best to consult your financial advisor. We also have additional information on taxes here: http://www.kickstarter.com/help/taxes

I'm hoping you are coming up with a better way for Australians to fund US or other projects than Amazon Payments which is a nightmare. How about adding Paypal support for projects that have met their funding goals but haven't yet closed. Then you KNOW the project is going ahead and can happily take the money and we can still get in on projects we want to support.

HI everyone, we have launched “ KREMAS” one of our Haitian delights recently on Kickstarter, and we believe even if we go to family or friends but we need OTHER PEOPLE TO ENJOY in a easier way to discover projects, or they wont hear about them until it is too late, they might be interested.

Please help me? I note there are a great number of projects listed in South Africa. I also wish to enroll my project, but I cannot find a portal for South African portals. How do I go about it?
Wynand upnfiresa@gmail.com